"and suffered prejudice and discrimmination."
I got it--you are in a hurry and jot off a quick note without checking it. But misspelled words are now underlined in red by every browser I have seen.
This woman has also told her class that a work of fiction is "semi-autobiographical" even though it contains this quote on the copyright page:
"The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author." <facepalm>
Memoirs do not belong in the autobiography sub-genre in my opinion. They border on the fictional side of life. They get away with it by claiming to be "the author's view." Frequently, they are called out for the facts they present that do not stand up to fact checking and even for complete fabrication. We lap them up along with the false reality TV shows and documentaries and amaze ourselves at how something so out there is true. As the old adage says--"if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't true." Adjusted, I would say "If it seems too entertaining to be true, it probably isn't true."
I say this as someone whose grandmother fully believes I should turn my life into a reality show. Then she says no one would believe it is true, though. I walk into a store for something quick, get in line and the lady in front of me discovers she grabbed the wrong item for her 50 cent coupon. She proceeds to run all the way to the back of the superstore to find the correct item and then returns with it while the rest of us are still waiting. Then she pulls out her checkbook--she has not been writing her check while the checker was ringing things up. She just starts when the checker pushes "total". Finally, I step up, the checker swipes my one item and discovers she has run completely out of receipt tape. She does not have an extra roll ready in anticipation of this moment, but has to send to the office to get one. True story--and it would be believable if it happened once, I suppose. The problem is that it happens all the time to me. While it is happening, I usually explain to the people around me that if they see me in line again, they should probably pick another line. My husband after 20 years no longer believes me when I say I just need to run in and get something and it won't take more than five minutes.
Nobody would read a boring story-true or false. It is our job as writers to make each story we tell (non-fiction or fiction) believable and interesting. How many times have you seen a negative Amazon review about a fiction book that wasn't believable? The problem comes when an English teacher tells her class a fiction work is semi-true just because it is believable. If as an author I write something that is close enough to fact that I deem it a true story, I am not going to market it as fiction.
The term "semi-autobiographical" exists, but the problem is that it has no definition--nor could it. All works of fiction are in some ways semi-autobiographical. Writers create stories and characters based on what they know. By the looseness of the term, semi-autobiographical means anything that is currently classified as fiction. In a society that already enjoys blurring the line between fact and fiction, this is unhelpful. Academia has flagged Dickens as writing many "semi-autobiographical" works that are nothing more than well-researched, believable fiction.
For example, I am currently ghostwriting a fiction book in which the main character is entered into a speech-writing contest by her professor. The person who is the author had originally planned for her to write a literary analysis paper that was entered in the contest, but I changed it because speech class better fit the story. I also gave her a job in a grocery store. Is this ghostwritten work of fiction that will not even bear my name now "semi-autobiographical"? After all, a teacher DID enter me into a speech writing contest when I was in high school, and I had a job in a grocery store. In fact, the layout of the grocery store in the novel is similar to the one in which I worked. By the current definitions, if someone found this out in the future (and discovered that I had ghostwritten this book) they could claim it was. But my experiences, which are not truly related in the novel--but, as Dickens would say, "are written in the way I wanted them to happen--" are not something I would consider autobiographical at all. If Dickens himself admitted that the things in his books were not really how they happened, and if further research has shown these things in his books are not true, then why do we keep insisting his works are "semi-autobiographical" works? All the best fiction is based on life. That does not make it non-fiction.
As authors, we all have a responsibility to honestly inform our readers whether we are writing fact or fiction. Readers, including those in academia, have the responsibility of believing us.
Read your second and third paragraph.
ReplyDeleteFixed. :) I welcome any comments that correct typos on my blog (or in my book).
DeleteAs I have stated before, I do not edit my blog because I do not get paid to write it. It is kind of like a gourmet chef I once knew who stopped at McDonalds almost every day because he didn't want to go home and cook for himself. I do go back over my professional letters and other communication. Since this teacher is paid to be a teacher and was communicating in relation to her profession, I have no shame complaining about her while making my own errors. :)
That said, I hope you are an English teacher. If not, we need more like you. :)